In tribute to a great season – we bring you our final ‘Video of the Week’ for the year. After finals ended at the beginning of May, some of us headed to Mammoth to ride out the rest of the season. Between cleaning the house and battling daily epic thunderstorms, we captured the following footage. Thanks everyone for a great season and stay tuned for more updates and videos throughout the summer – we have some good things in the works.

This video is dedicated to our teammate and everyone’s good friend Caleb Farro who tore his ACL on the last day of filming. We hope you have a speedy recovery and are back stronger and more hyphy than ever next year!

I tried to make up a bit for lost time by releasing this past weekend’s video sooner! Double feature for you all… This footage was all taken with our new GoPro cams and mounts! This was all taken this past Sunday in Main Park where temps were hot and snow was soft. Sean Trotter demonstrates insane rail tricks and large spins while Chris Farro shows off some of his rodeo/double rodeo skills. The ski mount on my ski provides some interesting perspectives as well! Hope you all enjoy.

This weekend also was our last competition weekend with the SCCSC. USC came out and busted out the skills necessary at slopestyle and skiercross, earning us 4 of the top 5 for men’s skiers, and 3 of the top 8 in men’s skier cross. Katherine O’Brien earned us some points getting top 8 in skiercross as well! Congrats team! Full results can be found here under Race Weekend #6

Don’t forget to watch the video posted yesterday as well! An easy way to see all the videos is click the smaller “Video of the Week” under the title – it will show everything in that category!

*If you have video or photos from his weekend’s slopestyle/skiercross/bikini run please email me!

The team has a new executive board for the 2009/2010 season! Congratulations to everyone.
President – Chris Nelson
Snowboard VP – Rick Davey
Ski VP – Christopher Farro
Treasurer - Ben Gunton
Secretary - Katherine O’Brien

Also here is the video taken from the weekend of April 9-12.  The footage taken is from sun ridden parks, fresh powder, and a ton of kids having fun.  Teammates were out doing epic trains in the park, shooting photos, and throwing sweet tricks.  Enjoy the edit and stay tuned to a new edit from this past weekend dropping soon.

This past weekend, April 4-6, was an unexpected perfect weekend. The high winds predicted subsided by Saturday leaving a calm, sunny, and empty weekend. As usual during spring time conditions – Mammoths parks were in top condition with jumps littered all over the place. Tricks were being thrown and shots made well after the chairs closed on both days while the spring sun stayed high in the sky. Congrats to Chris Farro for landing his first Kangaroo flip – a double rodeo 900 (essentially a double backflip with a few twists here and there). This trick was introduced to the skiing community just 2 years ago by superstar and pro-skier Jon Olsson. The kang-flip gave Olsson the win in countless big air competitions over the past 2 years and is not something seen everyday! Kids on the chairlift yelled “Kangaroo man!” all day afterwards. Enjoy the edit featuring tricks from Chris Farro, Sean Trotter, and Ben Gunton!

Red Bull just released their official Snow Warz video online – check it out.  Watch for Chris Farro’s sweet rodeo 540 in the beginning (dressed in yellow), USC shoutout, and Leita at the afterparty!  Be sure to watch it in HD – it’s super high quality!

Here’s also a sweet picture I found of Chris Farro doing his layed out switch backflip on Mikepoz’s Flickr photostream

Chris Farro throwing a switch backflip

Here’s some more photos from that day found on Jerry Kasai’s photography blog

Taken from all of the comments posted on the website, 9 winners were chosen at random this past weekend and assigned sweet goods from our sponsors. Here’s the winners list with assigned prize:

1. Rick Davey – Nomis T-Shirt
2. Drew Araujo – Sound T-Shirt
3. Chris Farro – Nomis Hat
4. Katherine O’Brien – Sound Beanie
5. Katherine O’Brien – Line Bandanna
6. Robby Thorpe – Technine Shirt
7. Chris Farro – Line Bandanna
8. Caleb Farro – Nomis T-Shirt
9. Nikki Ross – Sound T-Shirt

If you haven’t claimed your schwag, it can be picked up in Mammoth this weekend! Our next raffle will be drawn from the list of competitors that have competed this year. Each competition you entered is an extra entry in the raffle! Stay tuned.

Thanks to our sponsors – Sound, Nomis, Technine, Line for the sweet product and stoke factor.

It’s been a sunny park filled March so far. The first week of March held the Collegiate National Championship in Winterpark Colorado. Chris Farro, Caleb Farro, and Abe Kislevitz headed out there and took some footage through Winterpark’s park. The rest of the footage was taken at Mammoth over our spring break which held 55 degree days and soft parks. It’s been a good time and we’re gearing up for SCCSC’s competition weekend #5 this weekend which holds giant slalom races and possibly slopestyle on Sunday if the storm holds off. Enjoy the edit!

USC entered 3 teams in Redbull Snowwarz!

This past Saturday, March 14th, Redbull hosted an awesome college team slopestyle jam.  The weekend kicked off with a Redbull hosted party at the Santa Monica HQ on Thursday night, followed by coach buses driving all night to get all the athletes up to Mammoth by Friday morning.  Mammoth rebuilt all of South Park just for the competition, complete with a triple set of jumps and newly painted rails repping the Redbull logo.  The format of the competition is a team slopestyle competition of 4-6 athletes per team from colleges all over the country.  This year was their largest turn out with over 45 teams entered including teams from UCLA, ASU, UNR, TCC (Tahoe Community College).  The competition was stiff with skiers and boarders all together.  Teams were stacked with kids just starting out park all the way up to sponsored riders.  Some teams entered to have a good time, and others battled it out throwing down lines of tricks rivaling those seen in the X-Games.

Roommates - Bryan, Matt, and Abe getting ready

Rick and Caleb repping their competition bibs

Saturday morning arrived with cloudy skies and breezy winds – the sun came out just before the actual competition started. The first of USC’s 3 teams to throw down was the team of all skiers – Sean Trotter, Chris Farro, Caleb Farro, and Abe Kislevitz.  This was the team that dominated out in Colorado at the National competition plus Sean Trotter who is a freshman at USC from Aspen Colorado.  Trotter tears it up in the park and absolutely slays the rails – he’s a good asset to have.  Everyone on the team threw down on their first two runs and got a team score high enough to advance them to the finals.

Caleb hucking a superman front for the cameras and the crowd

The other Farro hucking a layed out switch backflip

The next team up was made up of Rick Davey, Tom Gibbings, Jenna Hannon, Leita Covington, and Nelson DeCastro.  Nelson dressed up in his grandma outfit and hit some big jumps to grant him best costume of the day awarded to him later that night at the awards show.  Leita went huge off the first jump overshooting it way down to her face.  She was knocked out and taken off the course.  Later that night she was awarded best fall and was given some sick Oakley shades and a new pair of skis.  The last team was made up of both skiers and boarders – Matt Mueller, Bryan Balfanz, Chris Nelson, Paul Glavin, and Ben Gunton.  These guys were out there throwing down some tricks and in their second run went for some crowd pleasers such as cracking a redbull mid-jump, throwing the ski poles, and mooning the crowd. During the competition Redbull provided boxed lunches for everyone and a live DJ.  A large crowd was gathered at the side of the course cheering teams on.

Nelson flying high with the best costume of the day

The finals came around with each of the top teams providing their top two riders in a one-run-each battle for the win.  At this point the wind was getting rough and the landings hard.  Riders were tired and ready for some rest.  Team USC threw down sick runs but Chris got hit with the wind on the switch backflip at the last jump which caused him to case and lose a ski.  Trotter’s run was flawless with multiple cork 900’s and pretzel 270’s on the box.  We were proud of our team but it was Cal Poly that came out with the win, with UCLA in second, and CU Boulder in third.

After the competition was over Redbull hosted a buffet dinner at Canyon Lodge with a party afterwards.  With the comp done and the tricks thrown, it was time to get to the park on Sunday and throw down for ourselves.  We captured some epic shots on camera and got the team stoked for our SCCSC slopestyle competition coming up this next week!

Abe throwing a handdrag over Gregory's knoll with the boys looking on

Chris throwing an epic flatspin 540 with Ben following close with the cam

Caleb looking epic for the camera on the last jump of the day before he ran to Cancun

Good weekend guys - good weekend.

The following are sweet images that are sized for your computer backgrounds – Rep the team!

Team friend Cheech in Redbull - Photo by Brad Fol

Download large (1440 x 900)
Download medium (1280 x 800)

Team USC after Snowwarz - Photo by Brad Fol

Download large (1440 x 900)
Download medium (1280 x 800)

Caleb in Snowwarz - Photo by Brad Fol

Download large (1440 x 900)
Download medium (1280 x 800)

Caleb, Chris, Clarey, and Abe recieving the National Championship Trophy

If you haven’t heard – USC took home the National title for Men’s Freestyle Skiing. This consisted of Halfpipe, slopestyle, and skiercross. For overall points USC beat out CU Boulder, UBC, and over 20 other schools.

In each event the top 3 scores/placements were added up. At the end of the week all the top 3 scores are combined and the lowest is the champion. Our team being only 3 strong (+Clarey for moral support) meant we all had to do well in every event. Going into the last day of skiercross USC was ahead of 2nd place CU Boulder by 4 points. They had registered 8 competitors in skiercross, meaning all 3 of us had to do better than all 8 of their team. By luck, fast race skis, and swift skiing all of us placed in the top 16, with two placing in the top 8. This was enough to beat out UC Boulder which lost all but two of their competitors in the top 32, with the other two getting knocked out in top 16.

Congratulations to Chris Farro who placed 2nd overall individually, earning him a 1st Team All-American award overall, and Caleb Farro who placed 3rd overall individually, also earning the same award.

Click here for the official overall Men’s Freestyle Skiing results

Naturally missing a week of class makes the next week hell – so expect a full update with video soon! For now I just wanted to get the word out there.

Standing on the podium for 1st place team in Halfpipe

Today was the National Slopestyle competition. 25 skiers battled it out on 3 large jumps and 2 rails/boxes. The level of competition that went down today was absolutely insane. Skiers and boarders were throwing off axis spins both ways on almost every jump. As far as the no invert rule went – anything was game except for straight front and backflips so we saw every variation of flat-spin, rodeo, cork, bio, and misty thrown throughout the competition. Ulav the Norwegian skier took home first with his lofty cork 9’s and huge switch 9’s. One skier threw a giant cork 10 and over-rotated to 1260 on the money booter at the bottom. The atmosphere with all the competitors was awesome. Everyone cheered everyone’s run at the bottom and after the comp a lot of us rolled through the park in a big crew having fun.

The slopestyle course!

Chris Farro came out #5 with his epic run of flatspin 5, bio 7, cork 7, and a double handdrag 3 over the last knoll.  Caleb earned #6 throwing down cork 7’s, 5’s and 3’s.

Chris and Abe hanging out on the staircase

The first awards ceremony took place earlier this evening – USC took home 1st Place team in Halfpipe, and 2nd Place team in slopestyle – 1 point away from beating CU Boulder. Chris Farro was awarded two All American 1st team awards, Caleb got two All American 2nd team awards and I got 1 All American 2nd team award.

Our National Championship Trophy!

Chris hardcore claiming the end of the day - EPIC WIN

Skiercross time trials are tomorrow so we’ll see how that goes. Check the photo albums for more pictures!